


Different Path

by Marvelgeek42



Series: The Path of Remembrance [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Molly Weasley, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Gen, Good Severus Snape, Horcrux Hunting, Minor Characters not as minor anymore, Modernizing the Wizarding World - Step by step, OC younger students because I need more students younger than Harry than cannon allows, Order has a backbone, Partly Competent Press, Sirius is free, Slow To Update, Tonks & Tonks - Lawyers, backstories
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:46:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4905991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelgeek42/pseuds/Marvelgeek42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Logan (also known as Harry Potter) and the kids left, leaving behind some helpful tips to avoid deaths and stop Voldemort. Watch how the wizarding world uses them and thus chooses a different path than what could have been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
> My first-ever kiss scene!

  _ **Help from the future!**_

 By Margaret Perks

  _Yes, you read right. Yesterday morning breakfast at Hogwarts was interrupted by a howler from an now alternate future. The letter, sent by the children of Harry Potter and Miss Ginny Weasley and their 'godbrother', son of Auror Nymphadora Tonks and the werewolf Remus Lupin._

_They sent a list of the people who died in the 'Second Blood War' (and a few from the first, the one you know as the years of You-Know-Who's terror) and summoned Minister Fudge, Remus Lupin, Auror Tonks and her parents, the lawyers Ted and Andromeda Tonks, Oliver Wood (Reserve Keeper of Puddlemere United), Amelia Bones, the Head of DMLE, the retired Auror Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the entire Weasley family, Harry Potter's owl and a house-elf named Dobby to listen with the students and faculty of Hogwarts._

_It seems Harry Potter was telling the truth, You-Know-Who is back! He, along with the minors who started everything, traveled through time and joined the people listening, providing memories of the deaths or the last time Harry Potter met the person in question._

_As the morning progressed, there were several shocking revelations._

_The first being that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary of the Minster, Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and Hogwarts High Inquisitor had been using Blood Quills, Classified Dark Objects, Level 4, for every single detention! I don't know about you, but I am enraged my littlest sister was forced to use Quills only legal for lawyers or the goblins of Grinngotts. Miss Umbridge was arrested and is currently in a holding cell in the Ministry building while Remus Lupin took over her job, already proven competent in the school year of 1993/94._

_Shortly thereafter it became clear that Peter Pettigrew is alive and guilty of the other murders Sirius Black was accursed of and spent twelve years in Azkaban for. As it turned out, no one remembered – or bothered – to give him a proper trial or even question him properly, as otherwise it would have become obvious fairly quickly, if one used the proper procedure with Pensieve or alternatively Veritaserum, or possibly both, which seems to be used less and less. He was finally given a trial yesterday afternoon and was cleared of all charges. The fee for being an illegal Animagus was subtracted from the gold he was granted._

_Peter Pettigrew is an illegal Animagus too, so look out for rats with missing toes. If it turns out to indeed be Pettigrew, you get 20,000 Galleons for turning him in._

_The future self of Harry Potter also left a list of confirmed Death Eaters from their time and implied that he was not as pampered at his muggle relatives home as was previously believed. Between the two versions of the Boy who Lived it soon was clear that Harry Potter was abused!_

" _Of course she [his owl] was [Potter's first friend]. The Durselys did not allow me having friends. Remus is higher in the toads [Madam Umbridge's] view than I'm in theirs. Or muggleborns in the view of Death Eaters. Or Jews in Nazi's."_

" _I had to cook, wash and basically everything else. I was not allowed to be better than Dudley [Potter's cousin]."_

_These are actual quotes of Harry Potter himself. An investigation has been started._

_**For more information on You-Know-Who, see page 2.** _

_**For more information on Dolores Umbridge, see page 4.** _

_**For more information on Sirius Black and the crimes he was imprisoned for, see page 5.** _

_**For more information on Peter Pettigrew, the bounty on his head and the man's Animagus form, see page 7.** _

_**For the list of Death Eaters, see page 9.** _

_**For more information on Potter's home life, see page 10.** _

* * *

When Tonks had finished her shift and arrived at Grimmulad for the Order Meeting (which technically only started a hour later, but if she had gone home, most likely she would have been late, so), Remus was already waiting for her in the Entrance Hall.

Good for him. He got plus points for not  _trying_  to avoid their conversation.

"You wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, but not here. Somewhere were we won't be interrupted every five seconds."

Remus grinned slightly. He should do that more often, looked  _really_  good on him.

"I might know a place."

* * *

"So, this is your room?" Tonks questioned, looking around.

"Yes," he answered, scathing the back of his head.

They were on the fourth floor to the side of the street, right next to the library.

There wasn't really a lot of furniture in the room (only a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a chair), which made clear the room was was originally a guest room.

The only things Remus seemed to have changed were a few bookshelves, full of the kind of books you would not find in the library next door (though there were a few books that might be from there spread in the room too): Muggle Fiction.

Her dad had quite the collection, so Tonks recognized a few she had read over the years (not even she was sure if it was voluntary or not), like  _Lord of the Rings_ ,  _Sherlock Holmes_  or  _1984_.

Maybe they could talk about a few sometime later, depending how their conversation went.

Which reminded her.

Remus noticed they were still standing in the middle of the room so he offered Tonks to sit on the bed while he moved towards the chair, but she pulled him to the bed, so he too sat on the bed.

There were a few seconds of awkward silence while they both thought about how to start.

"Look," Tonks finally begun, "Teddy proved the two of us  _can_  work. I like you and I know you like me, don't try to deny it. I honesty don't mind that you're poor, a werewolf and thirteen years older than me, you know that. So I don't get why you won't even  _try._ "

Remus looked directly into her eyes. "Because you deserve someone better than me and I'm hoping you'll see that too."

The metamorph's hair changed from her usual pink to a dark tone of blue.

"But I don't want anyone else. I'm a big girl. I can make decisions by myself. I want you, with everything that makes you you. So, what if I'll have to listen to rude comments from bigots and morons? I'm an Auror, I can handle worse things. It's a really sweet thought, but we'll have to work on your self worth. Because you are such a sweet, kind, thoughtful, and just wonderful man and I won't stop until  _you_  know that too."

Remus, despite her sincere look, did not seem to believe her for some reason. Maybe she'd get Sirius involved. And Harry.

"I'm not-"

The werewolf was interrupted by her kiss.

He was frozen from shock for a second or two, before deciding to return the kiss.

They kissed for maybe thirty seconds in total before Tonks pulled away, grinning.

"You were saying?"

Remus smiled.

"Maybe we can try."

"That's all I ask for."

* * *

For the students of Hogwarts, the rest of the week went by quickly and was almost boring in comparison to the extraordinary start of it.

They had given Snape the recipient of the cure for Neville's parents and told him he could either claim it was his invention or not.

He did not.

Neither Hermione nor George or Luna would have minded, since it technically wasn't them who came up with it.

It did however take a moon cycle to brew, so that was it for now.

Soon it was Saturday and those who wanted to help assembled in front of the painting of Barnabas the Barmy.

The word had spread outside the DA (although not to the teachers), so there were more students than Harry could count in a few seconds, maybe sixty to seventy, and a few adults (Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye, Sirius, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Remus and Tonks. The last two were holding hands, as Harry was pleased to see) already waiting when the Trios and the Weasley Twins arrived two minutes late (the stairs had not been cooperating at all).

Two. Not twenty, two.

Most likely quite a few were only here because of Harry, now he was no longer an attention seeking liar.

Harry had to force himself to keep walking and he was pretty sure the others had similar reactions.

"So, good morning. Everyone below fourth year, please leave. I'm afraid you do not know enough spells yet."

Grudgingly, about twenty students left.

"Why didn't anyone open the door?" Harry questioned.

"Which door?" Daphne Greengrass asked.

"This one," Ron, who had walked past the wall three times by now pointed out.

"Where did it come from?"

"That wasn't there before!"

"Surprise!"

So that's why those who knew of the Room waited outside.

The faces were priceless.

* * *

Ron had asked for a room to plan and research, so instead of their normal room, they were in a well-lit room with many shelves full of books, scrolls and maps.

There were a few tables and chairs which you could combine as needed. Currently the chairs were placed in a classroom-like fashion and the tables were stacked against the wall opposite from the door.

Even a few whiteboards, cork pinboards and map holders (or whatever their proper name was. Harry had not exactly been bothered by it in primary) were in there.

Once everyone but the Golden Trio had chosen a seat, Harry hesitatingly addressed the crowd.

"So, erm, hello everyone. Thank you for coming. As I'm sure you all know, Logan wrote me a letter, telling me the location of the horcruxes and the safety measures Voldemort has taken to protect them."

He decided to ignore the shudders and flinches that went with using the name. They'd learn soon enough.

He was pleased to note however, that some of the members of the DA did neither.

"We've completed a list outside that, as there were some other,  _personal_ , things mentioned as well."

While Harry was talking, Hermione had pulled over a whiteboard, enlarged the list and pinned it on the board.

The list read in Hermione's neat handwriting:

_VOLDEMORT'S SOUL PIECES_

_All wear/useable have a compulsion charm on them, so one is tempted to wear/use it._

_Tom Riddle's diary – already destroyed._

_Hufflepuff's cup – Gringotts, Bellatrix Lestrange's vault – no additional protections, goblins may hate horcruxes_

_Sytherin/Peverell ring – Little Hangelton, Gaunt Shack – Repelling Charm over property, snakes, posion (skin contact only)_

_Slytherin's locket – Order headquarters – Kreacher, mention intent of destruction (mention of Regulus not harmful), added benefit of him stopping to insult everyone and starting to be nice to everyone, if kinder treatment_

_Ravenclaw's diadem – Hogwarts, Room of Requirements, Room of Hidden Things – no additional protections, bring two bags with Extension Charm, one for illegal/dangerous, one for useful._

_Voldemort's snake, Nagini – Voldemort's location – Must die_

_Harry – Find a way he does not die!_ (This was underlined several times.)

_Voldemort's body_

"Well, I'll obviously help with the Cup," Bill stated before bothering to finish the list.

"So will I," Sirius joined, "Due to dear Bella being a Black by birth, the fact that all living Lestranges are currently rightfully in Azkaban,  _they_  had a proper trial and everything, and me being the head of the  _Most Noble and Ancient House of Black_ ", Sirius snorted, "I might be legally able to enter the vault and take anything from it."

"This is certainly useful," Bill agreed, "But I still think it would be better to arrange a meeting with the manager of the Lestrange family...Ignuk, I believe. First asking the goblins for it and additionally at least offering to pay them, would probably be the best. They might even know a way for Harry to stay alive too."

"We can get the Locket, provided we are allowed in there," Daphne Greengrass volunteered herself, Sally-Anne Perks, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, "Kreacher – I assume he is an house elf," some of the ones who knew the elf nodded, "sounds like he would be quicker to help purebloods."

"We'll see about it," Sirius decided.

"They do not need to see the house, do they?" Harry asked, forming a plan, "So if an Order member, or two, takes them inside, with blindfolds if necessary," he waited for the Slytherins to nod, "they will not be let into the secret, a certain portrait will, or might, calm down and Kreacher will cooperate faster."

"Good thinking kiddo," Mad-Eye agreed.

"That leaves the ring, the diadem, the snake, and Voldemort's body, if we count on the goblins having a way for Harry to stay alive," Hermione summarized.

"And we need a way to destroy these things," Sally Smith from Hufflepuff added.

"Maybe we can get Malfoy or Snape to poison the snake," Dean proposed, "They have a higher chance of getting to it than us."

"But what if they don't want to help?" a Ravenclaw in Harry's year, Amanda Brocklehurst, questioned.

"Then we have to hope we either find their headquarters or the snake is sent out of it for some reason or another," Ginny stated, "Unless someone here is willing to spy?"

"I don't think anyone here is a good enough occlumens for that," Tonks intervened, "Excerpting those who Voldemort already knows chose our side."

"We'll get the diadem," Kenneth Towler piped up.

"Who is we?" Remus inquired.

Kenneth Towler, the Weasley Twins, Lee Jordan, the girls from the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Marcus Belby, Roger Davies, Eddie Carmichael, Cho Chang, Julia Gardner and Laura White (one of the girls who had asked Harry to the Yule Ball last year) raised their hands.

As all of them were in the upper two years, the adults approved, as long as they stayed in groups of three or four (although Percy looked like wanted to join the teens).

The students accepted that. It was not like they had planned to go off alone.

"We can look for a way for Harry to survive if the goblins do not have one," Kimberly Green, a fourth year Hufflepuff called out, motioning to herself and the three other fourth years (Colin, Ginny and Luna).

"Unless someone else can speak parsel, I'll go get basilisk fangs from the Chamber and go to the Gaunt Shack with whoever wants to join."

Percy, Kingsley, Hermione and the other Gryffindor boys did join in.

There were still quite a few fifth years who had nothing to plan or research (which was what the others who were doing), so Remus, Mad-Eye and Tonks, the adults who were not split up, decided that one half of them (Lily Moon, Sue Li, Lisa Turpin, Megan Jones, Kevin Entwhistle, Padma Patil, Amanda Brocklehurst, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein, Sally Smith and Wayne Hopkins) would be researching useful spells, while the other (Roger Malone, Leanne Rogers, Alice Way, Fay Dunbar, Parvati Patil, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Michael Corner, Lavender Brown, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott) would be looking into battle strategies.

Soon (or at least that's how it felt like), it was time for lunch and they ended their meeting for today.

* * *

Amelia Bones was annoyed.

How someone like Cornelius Fudge had ever become Minister of Magic was beyond her.

Harry 'Logan' Potter had given her a list of people who were (in his time)  _confirmed_  to be either Death Eaters or their allies and she had logically started to arrest those not already imprisoned with the intent of questioning them, giving them a trial and punishing them according to their crimes.

But Minister Fudge disagreed with her course of action.

He had stormed her office the minute he was informed.

"What exactly do you think you're doing? Arresting no less than thirty-four purebloods!" he protested.

"My job? I have gotten trustworthy information the thirty- _six_  people I arrested were Death Eaters or so close to being one it didn't matter. Just out of curiosity, I assume you did not count Greyback, but who else?" she looked at him with her left eyebrow raised.

"That, that, that doesn't matter right now!" Amelia had to admit she was impressed by the shade of red in the Minister's face. "You must let them free, I insist!"

"No. They are accursed of crimes, so they will be questioned and given a trial. That's how the laws are, that's what we'll do."

"Laws can be rewritten."

"I'm well aware of both the fact it is possible and your use of it to your own advantage. By the way, do you consider Harry Potter an adult or not, since his trial was held like he was an adult, bar the use of Veritaserum or a Pensieve, yet he was tied for underage magic. Not to forget him participating in the Triwizard Tournament, an event for adults."

"Stop avoiding the topic!" He actually stamped with his right foot like a toddler would, "You will let them go now!" he ordered, still as red as a muggle firetruck.

"But Minister Fudge, what would the voters think? After the mess with Sirius Black we've been given reliable hints of Death Eaters, arrested them and then just  _let them go_? We would basically be telling them that their murdered relatives were irrelevant. If someone would imply the person who murdered Edgar and Igraine did the right thing, by letting him free, I would  _certainly_  not vote that person again. Also, you're giving them the message that as long as they have money, they will stay free, no matter what they do. What would stop, say, Pran Patil from murdering your supporters, because I remind you, his wife Shanti is the last surviving member of the Shafiq family, unless you count their children, of course."

Fudge, who had gotten paler and paler during her speech nodded weakly.

"Right, I'll just let you continue working then..."

He left the room and Amelia would swear she heard him muttering something along the lines of needing a drink.

_There was a reason the hat considered placing me in Slytherin_ , she thought to herself, smiling, as she went back to work.


	2. New Arrangements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry goes to the press, the Order stands up to Dumbledore and Remus needs a hug.

On the very same Saturday, Sally-Anne Perks had just finished dinner when she heard someone behind her speak her name.

She turned around and saw Harry Potter of all people. What could he want from her?

Sally swallowed. “Yes?”

“Do you happen to be the 'littlest sister' Miss Margaret Perks mentioned in her article?”

The girl nodded.

“In that case, would you be willing to arrange a meeting between her and me, possibly joined by Ron and Hermione?”

Sally-Anne blinked three times.

“Why?”

“Let's just say it's either your sister or Rita Skeeter. Out of those two your sister seems far more reliable.”

“Have you anything planned for tomorrow?”

* * *

The next Order meeting was rather interesting, if Kingsley was honest.

Professor Dumbledore was trying to get those of them that went to the meeting with the students the day prior to tell him what plans they had made.

Needless to say, it did not exactly work.

“No way in hell. Logan may have forgiven you for your plans, but I sure as hell didn’t,” Sirius snapped at the headmaster.

“Sirius, you must be reasonable-” Dumbledore protested.

“He is,” Remus argued, “Between Harry and you, Harry is the better choice by far. I mean, honestly, have we done _anything_ , in either of the wars, except for reacting? Have we ever attacked one of their bases? Have we ever tried to prevent an attack instead of just waiting for them to show up and then fight them? Have we trained to improve our skills outside of our line of work? No? Well, seems like both Logan and Harry already showed better leading skills for a war.”

“It pains me to say it, but the mutts are right,” Severus sneered, causing some stares and the present Marauders to grin triumphantly. “We could use our forces and resources, as limited as they are, better. Especially now the the public is aware of the return of the Dark Lord.”

“Yeah,” Tonks agreed. “Why are you insisting on knowing what we discussed when we could, no _should_ , be talking about, oh, I don’t know, maybe recruiting more Aurors, some people from the other parts of the DMLE and perhaps a few Healers from St. Mungo's.”

“Maybe ask for help other countries,” Bill injected, “According to Fleur, the French for example would be willing to help. If only so that Voldemort won't attack them next.”

Dumbledore looked like the thought never crossed his mind.

It most likely didn’t, Kingsley figured.

The other Order members seemed to have reached the same conclusion, judging from the look on their faces.

Dumbledore tried to limit the damage.  “Such things are not-”

“Pardon my French, Molly, but I call bullshit,” Moody interrupted, “These things are indeed more important than you knowing Potter's plans.”

“I happen to be of the same opinion, Alastor. Logan showed me that I cannot keep my children away from this war, so I will focus my energy on ending it as fast as possible, in the hope that this time around all of us survive”, Molly announced, her husband nodding along to her words.

Kingsley himself couldn't help but agree.

* * *

Later that Sunday, Margaret Perks was waiting for her littlest sister in separate room in the Three Broomsticks, her writing utensils in a bag near her feet.

She had been confused by the hastily written note from Sally-Anne, requesting her to bring them to the meeting they had planned weeks prior (this was one of the rare times Margaret had time during the monthly Hogsmeade weekends).

It would be an understatement to say Margaret was surprised when her sister arrived with _Harry Potter_ of all people, though that certainly explained the odd request.

She stood up d moved towards the strange pair.

“Sally, hello!” She hugged her sister and shook the boy's hand. “Mr. Potter, what a surprise! How can I help you?”

“Hello, Miss Perks, I'm here to offer you a job.”

Margaret raised her eyebrow.

“What have I done to earn this?”

“Proving me that wizarding journalism can indeed be taken seriously. My previous experiences were limited to Rita Skeeter and, depending on your definition of journalism, Gilderoy Lockhart.”

“If that is true I would not blame you for trying to avoid the press entirely.”

Potter sighed.

“Truthfully, I would indeed prefer that, but being me I will have to face the press sooner or later. I am simply choosing the when, how and who by doing this.”

“Does that mean you would offer me exclusive rights?” Margaret asked one she regained her breath.

“Not would offer, I am offering,” Potter corrected. He stuck out his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

“I would be a fool to decline,” she answered, taking and shaking his hand.

“Good. Before we will have any interviews, you will have to look over this contract.”

He handed her a few pieces of parchment, with the _Tonks & Tonks _label in the upper right corner, indicating that the lawyers who made the contract were Ted and Andromeda Tonks.

Margaret had heard of them. They were looked down by the so-called pureblood elite sorely for the reason that Ted was a muggleborn, but they were actually rather good.

She skimmed through them quickly before signing.

Potter took it back and glanced at her signature, most likely checking she did indeed sign her name (which she did) and not something else.

“So, do you want me to leave or...” Sally trailed off.

“You can stay. It concerns you anyway,” Harry replied.

“Now you've certainly got my attention.”

* * *

“Natalie! Emma! Hurry up!” Dennis Creevey yelled up the stairs to the girls dorms. “We're gonna be late!”

“Coming!” Emma Dobbs answered, hurrying down the stairs, quickly followed by the third member of their trio, Nathalie McDonald.

“Oh my Gosh, I'm so excited!” Nathalie squeaked while they moved towards the of the exit Gryffindor common room. “Harry Potter and his friends are going to teach us. _Harry Potter_!”

“Don't forget Hermione Granger,” Emma added as they passed the portrait of the fat lady, “Roger told me she's the smartest in their year.”

“Yeah, but your stepbrother quite obviously has a crush on her, I don't think his opinion counts,” Nathalie argued.

“Colin says the same,” Dennis joined Emma's side, “He says she's almost as smart as, if not smarter than Bruce Banner!”

The girls stared at him with their heads tilted. “Who?”

“Some guy in one of his comic books. You know how he adores them.”

This was why he loved Harry Potter so much. In Colin's eyes, he was comic superhero, only in real life, basically his dreams came true.

They continued their conversation until three minutes after they arrived in the Great Hall. In other words, when Harry Potter and his friends entered the room, thus effectively quieting the assembled first and second years.

Dennis' roommates Timothy McNeal and Sebastian Perris would later swear that they heard Harry Potter mutter that he 'felt like Snape or Professor McGonagall' (which was disturbingly true if Dennis was honest), while he walked past them to the opposite side of the hall.

“Welcome everyone!” Harry Potter addressed them. “To the first meeting of the yet to be named club! In these weekly meetings we will work on your skills in different areas, both magical and muggle. Anyone who has a problem with that is free to leave.”

Dennis was pleased to see that no one moved, even if the expressions of some people (like a tenth or something) from all houses showed clear displeasure.

“Now, I think it would be appropriate to name this before doing anything else.”

“I thought we were Dumbledore's Army!” Some girl Dennis did not know (but he could see her Hufflepuff tie) piped up.

“That's right… I'm sorry, I don't know your name,” Hermione Granger replied.

“Rose Zeller”

“You are correct, Miss Zeller, only that Dumbledore's Army consists out of three mostly separate parts now, so we will need some way to differentiate between them.”

Suddenly everyone was yelling ideas. Dennis did not understand a single word.

Then, something exploded and one of the Weasley twins (Dennis thought it was Fred) smirked.

The others on the stage (was it even one or some weird wizard thing, Dennis wondered) looked at him.

They seemed to glare, as Fred (?) shrugged before telling them that at least they would understand the proposals for names now.

Soon (depending on one's definition) there were the top three written on a board:

 _Junior Badasses_ (this would most likely not be allowed anyways), _Group A_ (boring, like, why was that even in the top three?) and _The Simbas_ (Dennis personal favorite, though it might be a problem that Simba was, well, a _lion_ ).

For some reason (maybe because they were first and second year, not quite caught up in the House Rivality), they actually chose _The Simbas_ in the end (once everyone knew the basics of who he was).

“So, _Simbas_ ,” Harry Potter smiled, “The first thing we will be doing is…”

* * *

“Harry?” a voice from his left called hesitatingly, “Can we talk?”

He had just left the Great Hall when he heard Cho.

“Er, yeah, sure,” he scratched the back of his head.

“Maybe not here,” Cho suggested.

“Might be a good idea,” Harry agreed, “In the Room of Requirement?”

Cho nodded and the two of them silently climbed the stairs.

When they arrived at the Room, Harry let Cho decide how the room should look.

She choose an apartment decorated in Chinese tradition, as far as Harry could tell.

“So, what do you want to talk about,” Harry asked after they had sat down (on the floor one might add). He most likely knew, but he didn't know what else to say.

“Why didn't you tell me you like Ginny?” Cho stuttered, her eyes slowly becoming wetter.

“Because I don't. At least not yet. Maybe never. I mean she's a nice girl and everything, but I don't like her that way. I like you,” the words were out before Harry could stop them.

“You do?” Cho questioned, “I don't see how. I do barely anything but crying these days. Even Marietta complains about it. We've nothing in common, apart from Quidditch, as far as I know.”

Harry blinked.

“Really? I'm sorry, but Marietta does not sound like a good best friend,” at Chos insulted look he explained, “You and Cedric were a thing, right? So you've got a right to cry, at least in my opinion. I certainly would if y-, I mean someone I liked died.”

Unfortunately Cho caught his slip up, if the look on her face had anything to do with it, so Harry continued before she could interrupt. “So what if we have little in common? We have Quidditch as starting point.There might be some of the things you like which I just haven't tried yet, but will love if I try. Or vice versa.”

Cho smiled.

“There just might be.”

For the rest of the afternoon the two of them simply sat there and talked.

Cho seemed to be quite interested in some aspects of the muggle world which were previously unknown to her due to coming from a pureblood family, while Harry found himself excited with the idea of making brooms, Cho's dream job.

* * *

Remus was visiting the Tonks home for the first time in his life.

Not only this was the first time he'd meet Tonks parents, this was the first time he'd ever met the parents of someone outside of the Marauders (unless you counted the Wesleys, which Remus didn't).

So yeah, he was _pretty_ nervous.

They knocked and Remus was quite sure the neighbors could hear his heartbeat.

 _Maybe they aren't home?_ Remus thought when nothing happened for a minute. _Don't be silly. Of course they are. Otherwise they would have told Dora to come to another time._

Just then the was door opened by Mr. Tonks. He basically jumped up of the house to hug his daughter before greeting both of them and offering Remus his hand (which he of course accepted, he was not this big of a fool) and invited them inside directly thereafter.

Mrs. Tonks was already waiting for them on the couch. Compared to her husband, she was rather distanced from Tonks, as she did not hug her daughter or even stand up.

“Hello, Nymphadora. You must be Remus Lupin.”

Oh great, the displeasure in her voice was not even hidden (Remus may not have noticed it, but Dora later told him her father had glared at her mother).

Remus nodded.

“Well, we don't know much about you. Actually, now that I think about it, apart from your friendship to Sirius, you being a werewolf and the fact you taught at Hogwarts a few years ago and are now doing it again, I don't think I know anything about you,” Mr. Tonks corrected himself, “I must admit that I'm quite uncomfortable with that. I'd like to know more about the man that stole my daughter's heart,” he prompted.

“Well, Mr. Tonks-” Remus started to speak, but he was interrupted.

“Oh, none of this 'Mr. Tonks' nonsense, please, call me Ted.”

“Okay then, Ted,” Remus continued awkwardly, “What would you like to know?”

“Whatever you're willing to share.”

And so Remus started to talk. It was only reluctantly at first, with constant prompting from Ted, Dora and, occasionally, Mrs. Tonks needed, he talked.

He told them how his father, Lyall had met his mother, Hope, in a forest near Cardiff in 1959, saving her from a boggart. Mrs. Tonks questioned whether or not he meant _the_ Lyall Lupin, a world-renowned authority on Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions and Member of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures until 1981, when he seemed to vanish. When Remus affirmed she further inquired about his mother. Remus informed them that she used to be working for an insurance office and was indeed muggle. She, or more precisely her death, was also the main reason for his father's retreat from society.

Remus told them how his father had insulted Fenrir Greyback in early 1965 (even if he kept the details for himself) and how the werewolf had bitten him as some sort of revenge.

He told them how they had taken him to various healers, and when none of them could help him, opted for moving from village to village every time the muggles noticed his strange behaviour. He told them how they had not allowed him to play with other children and how lonely he felt (Dora gave him a reassuring squeeze when his tale reached that point, he gave her a grateful smile in return).

Remus told them how he had met Sirius, James and Peter and how _refreshing_ it had been. How they had roped him into pranking. How they had discovered he was a werewolf and waited for a month before telling him, but when they did tell him their greatest concern was how to make it less painful for him. How their had gone through all the hard work to become animagi for him. How they never cared to learn his medical facts, but the things that made him him _besides_ being a werewolf. How surprised (and glad) he had been when he had been made prefect. How horrified he had been when he could see the thestrals the summer after their fifth year and how Peter and James had stayed with him while Sirius went to get Firewhiskey. How they had named him Moony and done all in their power to distract him from that. How he had refused to talk with Sirius for over a month after that horrific prank. How weird the lesson when they learned their patronus had been, when it turned out his was a wolf, the other Marauders were their animagi and Lily's was a doe. How he could still not put it into words how good he had felt when after Lily and James had gotten together and they had told her the truth, her first words had been “So what? You're telling me this as if it would make a difference” and how he had seen James fall in love with her all over at these words and Sirius and Peter grinning approvingly at her, as if they would have forced James to leave her if she had dared to say something negative. How no one would hire him and he had been living sorely on James wealth and how he had hated it.

He told them how everything had turned (he was not ashamed to say that he had already been crying when he had gotten to that part). How his mother died. How Peter betrayed them, blaming Sirius. How he was still kicking himself for believing the story. How he and the professors had literally the only people at the Potter's burial, as their other friends were dead, insane, imprisoned or in hiding. How he had refused to move back in with his father. How he had gone from job to job, from apartment to apartment, never finding friends, never being as happy as he had been before. How he had made the mistake to go into _Les Miserables_ , or as he privately called it “All my friends are dead - The Musical” (he even had to leave during _Empty chairs at empty tables_ ).

Remus told them how infuriated he had been when he had discovered that Sirius had escaped. How it had not taken him long to conclude that Dumbledore's offer/pleading for him to teach defense would include him being used to get more information on Sirius. How he had still accepted, but only under the promise of the Wolfbane. How confused he had been when Harry had not recognized his name and how he still had not figured out what had happened to the presets and cards he had never stopped sending the boy, even if he had to go hungry for quite some days to be able to afford it. How devastated he had been during Sirius escapades over the year. How had figured everything out that evening, when he had seen Peter's name. How he hadn't even been surprised to find out that his secret was out the next morning.

His fear, his depression and the rare moments of happiness. How he had really loved Dor for month, but was still refusing to believe he was worth her.

By the end of his tale, the whole of the Tonks family had tears in their eyes and Dora hugged him.

Ted was the first to find his voice again. “Remus, you must promise me one thing.”

Remus was full well expecting something like the infamous 'shovel talk', but he was surprised.

“Please go to a mind healer. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you're insane or something, but it cannot be healthy to deal with all of this alone and I doubt Dora would be as much help as you need.”

This was something Remus found himself willing to try. 


	3. Different Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Severus Snape realized something, Margaret Perks has an idea and Remus Lupin gives his first lesson.

On Sunday morning, Gryffindor Fifth Years Fay Dunbar and Alice Way were sitting in the library with Hufflepuff Fourth Years Lynn Way and Kimberly Green doing the last bit of their homework. It was one of the only ways Lynn and Alice could spend time together and the siblings were very close, so they took every chance they got.

“So, Aidan has been telling me about this… movie,” Fay pronounced carefully, “he wants to see. I believe it was called _The King of Lions_.”

“It's _Lion King_ ,” Lynn corrected her friend.

“Yes, this one. I do not know what it is, so how can I show it to him?”

“You know, given how little most purebloods know about the muggle world, I am regularly surprised our world is still secret. If Britain is any indicator for the world as whole the Oblivators must really be overworked”, Kimberly as the only muggleborn in the group mused.

“It is not like the muggleborns know a lot of our world either!” Fay defended herself.

“Yes, but they have the excuse of not knowing about magic,” Alice took Kimberly’s side. “You purebloods are simply ignorant.”

“Am not! Others like Malfoy or my grandparents? Sure. But I do my best. I simply have no one to teach me properly.”

“Well, what if we started something like our own version of the DA?” Lynn proposed.

“What do you mean?” Kimberly wondered.

“My idea is: let's reduce the hate between the groups. Introduce muggleborns to the magical society but do the same for purebloods and the muggle world.”

“Like any of the 'Dark' students - who would need it the most - would join,” Alice dismissed the idea.

Lynn shrugged, “So start with watching Disney movies. Do _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ before moving on to other stuff. Do _Doctor Who_. Pop culture, basically.”

“That's a great idea!” Kimberly agreed. “By doing this you'd do history, traditions, fashion and so much more.”

By now everyone was more or less enthusiastic about the idea, but everyone for it.

“But wouldn't we need a teacher?” Fay mentioned her concerns. “I mean, Potter did not have one, but for this to work it would need to be official.”

“We'd need a room with technology too..” Alice added.

“So,” Lynn shrugged, “Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Burbage or something like this I believe, and Room of Requirement. There. Problem solved.”

“Anyone against the idea?” Kimberly question, looking at her friends who nodded, “Then let's start organizing!”

* * *

“Hello Joseph,” Laureen Gregson greeted her colleague Joseph Ackerly from her place at the other side of the cafeteria of St. Mungo’s when he entered the room.

“Hey Reenie,” he grinned while leaning back to avoid her slap, “Any interesting incidents?”

“Nah, just a broom crash and two people messed up some potions - a Swelling Solution and a Confusing Concoction respectively. How are things going in Bugs and Diseases?”

“Dreadful. Not only we’ve got a case of dragon pox and some poor woman has Scrofungulus, but some moron experimented with different bugs to create a new one and got bitten by it,” Joseph threw his hands up in frustration while the person next to Laureen (Joseph thought it might be Helbert Spleen) stood up and left to return to work, “Dunno what he was expecting in the first place, honestly. What was he thinking?”

“No idea,” Laureen shook her head, returning her attention to the _Daily Prophet_. After a minute or two with the only sounds from their table being chewing and the turning of pages, Laureen suddenly exclaimed “What’s this?”

“What?” Joseph questioned, taking a sip from his pumpkin juice while Laureen decided to read out what she was talking about.

**_Hogwarts Student’s Club Request Help_ **

By Margaret Perks

_Imagine my surprise when my youngest sister owled me three days ago and requested that I bring my utensils to our meeting on her monthly Hogsmeade weekend. Knowing she as a Slytherin is not one to fool around, I brought my quills and parchment, as well as a camera along and rented one of the secluded rooms from Madame Rosmerta, telling her to lead my sister in the room._

_It did not take long for Sally-Anne to arrive. She was however not alone. The boy who accompanied her was no one else than Harry Potter!_

_As we all know Harry Potter is not one to seek publicity, or at least not through interviews (this meeting being in fact Mr. Potter’s first voluntary one), so I understandably questioned his intentions._

_I will have to disappoint many reporters out there when I tell you that the first thing Mr. Potter did was to offer me a contract for exclusive rights, as - and these are his words here - I showed him wizarding journalism can be taken seriously._

_After that was done with however, Mr. Potter got to what he called ‘the real business’. You may have heard of the so-called Dumbledore’s Army, a club founded by Mr. Potter, a muggleborn named Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley to teach their classmates - even upper years - Defense after Madam Umbridge’s lessons proved to be ‘a waste of time’._

_One might think that they would stop now that they have a competent Professor again, but this is not Mr. Potter’s intention._

“ _While teaching the DA I noticed that many of the students seemed ill prepared for the future - especially given the unavoidable conflict with Voldemort, which I personally have no doubt will turn into a full out war. This must be corrected, but to me it does not look like anyone is actually doing anything for it. I am however only a fifteen-year-old boy, no matter what some people claim. I am sure I cannot possibly know everything we need to know. This is why I turn to the adults to help. To the healers and aurors. To the wandmakers and spellcrafters and anyone else out there whose profession exists. It does not necessarily have to be closely connected to the war, but there are chances one of the students here at Hogwarts will be interested in it and come up with a way for it to be useful. Please come here and tell us about our opportunities. We need to know if we want to survive._

_And even more, we need all jobs and I know plenty of students who have no real idea what they want to do with their lives. I beg you, come here, introduce your job.”_

_Now, I don’t know about you, but I know I am already considering it._

“And I must say, so am I,” Laureen concluded.

“Boy’s got a point,” Joseph agreed. “Didn’t the Order of the Phoenix just request help from us, like, last week? Way too small number of people out there fighting know their healing. And we’ve seen where that got us last war!”

“You’re right,” Laureen agreed. “Some of the McKinnons might’ve been saved if there had been something like a field healer.”

“I’m going whether management agrees or not,” Joseph decided. “If they don’t then I’ll just do it privately on a free day. They can’t stop me. The young folks need help. And it’s time for us to get off our asses and do something about it. I’m not gonna let my son die when I can do something about it!” he finished enthusiastically.

* * *

Professor Severus Snape was in his potion lab, adding Knotgrass to the (as of right now experimental in his mind) potion meant to cure Longbottom’s parents.

It was indeed a complex potion that Granger, Weasley and the fool (the Longbottom one) had invented. In fact, due to the combined complexity and lack of skill from two out of the three participants, Severus Snape did not trust the potion per se.

It was not that the thought the Potter brat (only it turned out he was not as much of one as it seemed) would lie to his friends like that. No, that boy had a loyalty to his friends that was even greater than Lily’s, as proven by the fact Weasley (the youngest male one) was still in his circle of friends after the ‘disaster’ prior to the Triwizard Tournament.

It was more that, well, esteemed Masters and Mistresses had tried for decades - some even say centuries - to find a cure and now these three had found one?

Absurd, that’s what it was. He was seriously tempted to outright refuse, but something Severus Snape could not identify made him try anyway.

After all, it could not be worse than Longbottom’s average work.

The voice in his mind that reminded him of Lily however made him question why these boys did not show any talent in his classes, should they prove to have it.

Then it (the voice-that-was-not-Lily) went even further to remind him of Longbottom’s boggart.

Severus paused, for the first time realizing something.

He was the boy’s worst fear. Prior to this point he has only focused on the humiliation the boy and Lupin had caused him.

Of course the boy messed up! If Tobias Snape where watching over Severus’ shoulder he might mess up too!

Severus had become something he hated with passion. A bully.

He promised himself, his mother and Lily that he would change something. This could not continue.

He would no longer be thought of in words Severus connected with James Potter and his merry band of fools.

* * *

“Alastor! Hello,” Molly greeted the man as he entered the door. “I’m afraid everyone else is out and about, should you be looking for anyone. But Sirius, Remus and Arthur at least should be back soon.”

“Then I’ll wait,” Moody grunted, sitting down at the kitchen table.

After a minute or two of content silence, Molly finally found courage to tell the man what she had been thinking about the past few days.

“Alastor, do you think you could train me? I know that I am not very good with a lot of spells and I know that this is not very good during these times, so I intend to change that. I need to be able to protect my family.”

Mad-Eye turned around to face her and looked directly in her eyes.

“Are you going to listen to everything I tell you? Will you not shy away from thing that scare you? Are you prepared to leave your comfort zone? Because I can promise you there will be blood, there will be sweat and there will be tears. But there won’t be quitting. I’m not going to avoid anything shy of the Killing Curse. Death Eaters won’t even do that, so why should I? If you are still convinced, then yes. If not, well.”

During his speech several emotions crossed Molly’s face. Shock, fear, horror.

What stuck however was determination.

“Sign me up. I need to protect my family.”

Later that day, when Molly told her husband about her new plan, Arthur asked Moody if he could join them. After giving him a very similar speech, Mad-Eye agreed.

* * *

On Wednesday evening during one of these lessons Sirius, Kingsley, Remus and Tonks were sitting in the kitchen, each minding their own business when a white blur appeared out of nowhere and swooped down in front of Sirius. It turned out to be Hedwig, but it wasn’t Harry’s handwriting on the letter attached to her leg. Which he of course mentioned out loud, so everyone scanned the letter and Sirius only touched it after all four charms had been negative (for anything from spells over jinxes to being doused in potions). He read the letter out loud.

_Dear Mr. Black and anyone else potentially listening,_

_my name is Margaret Perks and I feel the need to add my condolences concerning your wrongful imprisonment and I offer my most sincere apology for any inaccurate article I may have written._

_This is actually a major part of the reason I am writing to you. I have little doubt you have noticed my recent articles, as they were indeed rather hard to ignore as my sister Anastasia informs me._

_Knowing (hopefully soon to be ex) Minister Fudge, I am certain that my employment with the_ Daily Prophet _will not last much longer._

_When I mentioned this to young Mister Potter during our interview last Sunday, he happened to give me the most interesting idea (which he in turn admitted to have gotten from a Miss Megan Jones):_

_Apparently muggles have this most interesting concept called ‘free press’. This means the government has no right to dictate anything concerning journalism. After extensive research I found out that this law too exists in our world (due to the relatively muggle-friendly Ministry in 1921), but the Ministry owns a controlling interest of the_ Prophet _which is why they can happily ignore this without even bothering to repeal the law._

 _This is why I propose to found a new newspaper which would_ _only_ _print the truth and will attempt to present all sides of an issue so that the general public can actually make up their own minds instead of having their opinions dictated by the Ministry._

_I am sure you wonder why I am writing you with this idea. The truth is, I am in need of financial backing, as I am sure you know the Perks family is not precisely a rich one. One reporter alone cannot make a newspaper. I need to be able to afford printing costs as well as salaries for editors, reporters, photographers and most likely several more thing that I am missing right now._

_While I intend to give businesses an option to rent advertising space in later issues to take care about most of the costs we would not earn by selling, not one would be interested before the newspaper even_ exists _. Especially, as I plan for the first edition to be delivered to all magical households (including those of squibs and non-humans) for free._

_Thus I am in the need of help and from what I heard about you, you might be interested in helping my idea to succeed._

_Hoping to hear from you soon_

_Margaret Perks, current reporter for the_ Daily Prophet

“This is undoubtly an interesting idea…” Remus mused.

“That it certainly is,” Kingsley agreed. “You going to help her?”

“Kingsley,” Sirius deadpanned. “Why the hell should I _not_? This is what the Magical World needs!”

“He’s right,” Tonks pointed at her cousin for good measure, “This, more connection to the muggle world and more acceptance for non-humans and voilá! Both Lord V and the Ministry loose a lot of power. Where do I sign?”

* * *

Laurence Selwyn was eagerly anticipating his first lesson from Professor Lupin. While sure, he was a werewolf, almost all of his older housemates in Slytherin _and_ Liliana’s in Ravenclaw only had good things to say about him, so he had to be at the very least decent. And after Madam Umbridge both twins were ready to accept almost everyone.

Naturally this meant he was driving his roommates crazy with his excitement as apparently, it was improper for purebloods to show excitement. As in not at all. Which was something the entire Selwyn family (or his branch at least) disagreed with. They could show their emotions in front of their friends, inside of their homes (Hogwarts totally counted as home. After all they would spend the majority of the next seven years here).

When it was finally time for their first lesson (unfortunately they shared the class with Hufflepuff. Not that Laurence minded the badgers, but he did enjoy spending time with his twin), Laurence and his friend Fabian Brocklehurst were there early to get good seats, providing they were allowed to choose again (which they were).

Slowly the others arrived, always in groups of two, three or occasionally four, the other students arrived, but Professor Lupin was nowhere to be seen.

That is until the precise second the bell signaling the start of the class stopped ringing. With the best timing Laurence had seen in quite some time (which was saying something), their Professor entered the room from his quarters.

“Good morning, class,” he didn’t give them any time to respond, though some did anyway, “as you did not have any proper instructions before, the first thing we need to do is to get you all to the same level, as I’m sure some of you have heard of other spells, jinxes and charms than others. This year we will mostly focus on defensive spells and some harmless creatures, as you do not have enough knowledge of the magical theory to do much else.” Professor Lupin looked through the class to check that everyone got his point. “The most important thing you need to know about proper Defense against the Dark Arts is that there is no such thing as an useless spell. Same goes for jinxes, curses and even potions. Who can tell me why?”

Laurence  hesitatingly raised his hand after thinking about the question for a few seconds. He was one of handful of students to do so.

“Mr. Selwyn?”

“Well,” he answered, “I suppose spells and potions for healing are never a bad thing to know or have available… and something like a blasting spell might block the way of someone hunting you.”

“Miss Zeller?”

“You could distract someone long enough for you to flee or for help to arrive,” the black Hufflepuff mused.

“Exactly! Take five points for both Slytherin and Hufflepuff. It’s just as Mr. Selwyn and Miss Zeller said. You do not need to know offensive spells to fight someone. Block, Bewilder and be creative. Who can give me an example how you can achive this using spells, charms or potions you have already learned? Yes, Miss Nott?”

“If you use the Levitation charm to move something big in front of your opponent.”

“Precisely. Mr. Schmied?”

“When you take the Wideye potion before the start of a fight you might not get tired as easily,” the Hufflepuff had a thick German accent as he spoke.

“Good! Again, five points for Slytherin and Hufflepuff.”


	4. Further Moves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a horcrux is found, mail is sorted and the both the Wizengamot and Voldemort have a meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I hope this chapter will be worth it...?

"Sorry we're late!" Eddie Carmichael apologized when he entered the unused classroom they had decided to used as meeting place with Marcus Belby and Laura White. "Professor Sprout had to postpone our monthly house meeting a few hours, as roughly a quarter of the first years from several houses had questions in Herbology she had to answer."

"You have monthly house meetings?" Kenneth Towler questioned. "Why don't we have any of these? I remember several instances when something like that would have been very useful."

"Most likely because McGonagall has other things to do," Katie Bell theorized. "I mean she is the deputy headmistress and the transfiguration teacher too. I bet her timetable must be very full."

"That must be it," Lee Jordan agreed. "I wonder why she has all these positions…"

"Now that everyone is here-"

"What do you think about-"

"You know-"

"Actually looking for the horcrux?" George and Fred proposed.

"Sounds like a good idea." Angelina Johnson nodded and stood up. "We've waited long enough."

The group stood up and, slowly but surely, careful not to be noticed, made their way to the Room of Requirement.

It took a while, hiding such a large group was very difficult after all. Eventually they split up in three smaller groups that all took different ways to get to their destination.

When they arrived there, Roger Davis, seventh year Ravenclaw (and Quidditch Captain) questioned, "Everyone ready?"

Laura White, Hufflepuff sixth year, sighed. "For the fourth time, yes Davis. We were ready five minutes ago."

"It doesn't hurt to triple check. Or at the very least not in our case," her Ravenclaw yearmate Julia Gardner replied. "Also there is no need to be rude to Roger."

George and Fred smiled and put their hands above their hearts.

"Look at you two-"

"Ignoring stereotypes-"

"We're so proud!"

They split into groups of three (or four in one case) to increase both their speed and their agility, just like they had done earlier. Although in different groups for other reasons.

Katie, Angelina, and Alicia started to look at the left side of the room and work themselves to the middle; Kenneth, Julia, and Roger would do the same from the right; Laura, Marcus, Eddie, and Cho would start from the front of the room and Fred, George, and Lee would head over to the other side of the room and work their way back towards the entrance.

They all had gotten some bags from Bill to put the dangerous, interesting and/or potentially helpful things they would doubtlessly find into. These bags were heavily warded and enchanted (including but not limited to feather-light and an undetectable extension charm) and everyone got the instructions to summon the things instead of touching them.

After all, no one knew who had hid what in the room.

* * *

 

Three hours later, the four groups met in the middle of the room, their bags filled with lots and lots of items they had discovered. Of course no one would be able to see that from the bag alone.

"So nobody found it?" Julia questioned.

George cleared his throat. "Actually we think-"

"That we may have found it," Fred finished.

Lee nodded in agreement.

"And why exactly didn't you call us?" Laura questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"We did!" Lee defended their group. "You just didn't hear us. We checked and there is some sort of silencing ward on that corridor and that corridor only. So we marked it with a big yellow smiley and headed over here. It was only about one or two, maybe three minutes ago," he explained.

"Why a smiley?" Eddie inquired.

George and Fred grinned. "Because we could," the twins answered in perfect unison.

Some of the group shook their heads while others laughed, but they all moved towards the corridor.

Once they arrived there, Cho asked whether or not the twins and Lee had tried to move the diadem.

George shook his head. "We didn't."

"After we found out about the silencing wards we decided it wasn't worth trying. After all now we're all here and should something go wrong…" Fred trailed off.

"Huh. I would have thought you would have tried for sure," Kenneth remarked.

"Normally we would have," Lee agreed. "The thing is, we know this was hidden here by You-Know-Who. And Bill warned us at least thirty-five times not to touch anything. We're not suicidal."

George and Fred nodded along with him. Bill knew what he was doing, so if he warned them about something more than four times they immediately dismissed the idea. Same for Charlie if they were talking about animals.

Their brothers, however, did not know that.

"You do have a point. What are we going to do now? Try to summon it?" Marcus questioned.

"Sounds worth a try." Laura stepped to the front of their group and raised her hands, one holding a wand, the other in a glove to avoid touching skin contact with potentially dangerous things. " _Accio_!"

Amazingly, the diadem moved towards Laura's hand. The girl caught it with practiced ease.

"What? No anti-summoning charm?" Eddie wondered.

"From what Logan told us, You-Know-Who thought he was the only one who ever found this room, which is incredibly weird considering the fact that it's stuffed to the ceiling. Perhaps he thought the room itself was enough protection."

* * *

 

A few more days of planning and Fay Dunbar, Kimberly Green and the Way sisters, Alice and Lynn were ready to present their idea to Professor Charity Burbage,the muggle studies teacher, who was sitting in her office, grading essays (or so the girls suspected) when the four girls knocked on her door.

"Come in!"

The door opened and the four of them entered the room.

"Good Afternoon, girls." The students returned her greetings. "What brings you to my office?"

Lynn stepped forward. "We want to start a club. Sort of like Dumbledore's Army, but different in the aspect that instead of teaching defense, we want to teach about both muggle and wizard culture."

"That is certainly an interesting idea," Professor Burbage admitted. "But many have tried and failed to achieve just that."  
"Yes," Fay agreed. "But we plan to do things differently. It needs to be done because most members of the Wizarding World have little to no accurate knowledge of the Mundane one and, no offense, but Muggle studies is horribly outdated!

"Is that so?" Professor Burbage asked in perplexed surprise.

"Yes, Professor. I asked a seventh year for their books and they stop during the Industrial Revolution! Which is insane! My brother is studying history at Oxford, so I can tell you for fact that a lot happened since then. Two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, not to mention all the new discoveries and inventions!"

"And that's just a basic summary of a basic summary," Alice stated flatly. "If the Mundanes - sorry, but once I thought about it, Muggle really sounds like a slur - if they continue to work and understand the world like they did then it'll take them twenty, thirty, maybe forty years until they discover our existence. Since I think we'd all like to avoid a second coming of the Witch Hunts, we have to do something. All previous attempts we could find focused heavily on theory."

"Which is not a smart idea," Kimberly interrupted.

"We however, plan on doing things slightly differently. Namely, through pop culture. TV shows, books, movies basically. We think that we might be able to get a TV running in the Room of Requirement. From there we could show some of these to those who would join our club," Alice explained.

"And we also plan on introducing novels from the wizarding world," Fay added.

It did not take long until Professor Burbage was convinced.

The very second they were outside the hearing range of the Professor, the girls cheered loudly and enthusiastically.

* * *

 

Meanwhile Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were sorting through the dozens of letters caused by the advertisement in the Prophet with the help of Professors Lupin and McGonagall.

This desperately needed to be done, as, while there were many of professional offers, there were also a lot that clearly were a joke.

Additionally, to spare themselves of the pain of sorting everything twice, they were dividing the remaining letters in several piles, according to the job the writer had.

Originally they had only planned to recruit Remus (well the very first idea was Cho), but Professor McGonagall had been in the room when they went to ask and no one had been against it when she had volunteered to help.

"Oh, look here, a Healer!" Hermione exclaimed. "His name is Joseph Ackerly and he works in the Bugs and Diseases section." She moved the letter to the pile of those Healers they would consider (it was either that or an outright no at this point).

"Isn't there an Ackerly in Ravenclaw?" Harry questioned while skimming another letter.

"Yeah, a second year. I think his name is Stewart," Remus replied.

"I've got a magizoologist here, but I think this one is a joke. Or is there actually someone named Jonathan John Johnson?" Ron asked, turning to Professor McGonagall.

The Deputy Headmistress considered it for a few moments before she recalled the student in question. "Yes, I remember him. He was a Hufflepuff and a few years after you, Remus. His transfiguration work was passable, but Professor Kettleburn was extremely excited about his knowledge about magical creatures. Gossiped about him constantly," she said, a fond smile on her face.

"Poor guy. His parents can't have been very imaginative," Ginny commented.

"Craven Scamander?" Harry wondered. "Is he the descendant of the guy who wrote _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_?"

Remus shrugged. "I guess so. Scamander isn't exactly the most common name."

"He is, Harry," Hermione answered. "He is Newt Scamander's son in fact. And he has a son roughly our age too."

"How does she know this?" Ron wondered.

"I read," Hermione countered dryly. "You should try it too."

Ginny laughed loudly. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw McGonagall giving a slight nod in agreement. It was not very noticeable though, so he might have imagined it.

"But it's so boring!"

"Actually, no it's not," Harry disagreed. "Or at least works of fiction aren't - in my experience. My personal favorite is _Lord of the Rings_."

"Mine is _Pride and Prejudice_ ," Ginny inserted. "Thank you for the recommendation, Hermione."

"You read?", Ron asked incredulously.

"I don't like that tone of surprise, Hermione. I do read, but I only do it when I'm alone."

"Why?" Remus asked, his head slightly angled.

Harry stiffed. "Let's not talk about that, okay?"

"Alright," Remus agreed, before going back to sorting through the piles.

It took around three hours, but eventually they managed to divide the mail into different piles and burn the joke ones.

* * *

 

Kingsley Shacklebolt was running late. That itself was far from pleasant, but this time it was worse than usual.

He would be late for the first (and quite possibly last) Wizengamot meeting he had ever been invited to. Kingsley still wasn't quite sure why he was invited - he wasn't the head of anything, be it family or department - but it wouldn't have been a good idea to question or ignore it.

Which was the reason that he was currently running through the atrium. He would have been fine had he not run into Xenophilius Lovegood.

He liked the man, but somehow the man always seemed to turn up when Kingsley didn't have the time to speak to him.

Lovegood usually accepted this request to talk later, but for some reason he wouldn't today.

It was a close call, but Kingsley arrived in time.

He scanned the room, quickly located his chair and sat down, trying his very best to stay awake. Yesterday's paperwork has taken a lot longer than expected, thus he had not been able to take a nap before the Order meeting, which too took longer. He had only gotten two hours of sleep at most and was now feeling the results.

Madam Bones called for silence. Once the room and it occupants had quieted down, she started her her announcements.

"I am convinced that you are all informed about the fact that, contrary to the Minister's insistence, the man most commonly known as Lord Voldemort has regained a physical body and has reassembled the Inner Circle of his forces," Amelia stated, completely ignoring the shudder that went through the rows at her words. "We have received evidence from several reliable sources—both Harry 'Logan' Potter and his current version, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall and several others handed in pensieve memories and they all prove the very same thing: Minister Fudge knew about that particular fact months ago, just minutes after it happened. And what did he do?" Madam Bones looked around the room. "Did he increase the funds for aurors and healers? Did he make sure that the general public knew at least some form of defense? Did he make any plans on how to stop Lord Voldemort? Did he reach out to the various societies of non-human creatures and beings in an attempt to make them pick our side and not Lord Voldemort?"

Kingsley decided to watch Fudge, and boy, was that fun. With every question Amelia asked, the pink hue in their faces got darker and darker. He was really impressed how many shades of read the Minister and those selected few supporting him were able to reach.

"No he did not," Amelia continued. "He did not do anything of that sort. Instead he choose to stick his head in the sand and pretend everything was fine. The Minister did not even investigate whether or not there was any truth to Mr. Potter's and Professor Dumbledore's statement before dismissing it. Despite the fact that he had no evidence for his position and tried to quieten those who disagreed with him through constant humiliation and punishments part of which were, in fact, illegal, such as the Blood Quills used on the students of Hogwarts."

There were a few shouts of protest, but Madam Bones simply held up her hand to quieten them. Amazingly enough, it worked. Kingsley's respect for the woman grew a little, as it was not very easy to quieten down Fudge's most adamant supporters. Going by his own previous experience at least.

"I am aware that it was Madam Umbridge who used them. This is why she will be attending her trail tomorrow, not him. He have, however, found several pieces of evidence that suggest that she was acting with Minister fudge's full knowledge and permission. Should that turn out to be wrong, I will offer my honest apologies, but for now this is the assumption of the DMLE.

As I was saying, Minister Fudge did nothing to either find out the truth on whether or not Voldemort had regained a body, nor did he take any steps to prepare the public and the Ministry. He did, however, actively prevent anyone from doing these things and took steps in the opposite direction. Thus I, as well as several other members of the DMLE, conclude that Minister Fudge is no longer fit to lead the witches and wizards of Wizarding Britain and propose a vote of no confidence. Should that motion pass, we will hold elections for the general magical public, not just the Wizengamot."

That came as a shock to the room. To Kingsley's knowledge, votes for the general public had never even been proposed before, yet Madam Bones found the confidence to do this. Kingsley really admired the woman.

A great many of the room—less than half to Kingsley's delight—protested her suggestion (was it really one?).

To his surprise, one to them, probably the most adamant one at that, was no other than Albus Dumbledore.

He wasn't really sure what he thought of that.

* * *

 

At the very same time, Voldemort too held a meeting, to inform the Death Eaters of his changes of strategy.

The Dark Lord hadn't been pleased by the news of the apparent time travelers. Now that the public knew of his return (and actually believed him), he needed to rethink his strategy.

Simply focusing on the propercy, to discover the power that Potter apparently possessed - so far the boy hadn't shown any signs of any unknown power whatsoever - would not do anymore.

If his plan of preparing in the shadows wouldn't work, then he would do the opposite. Attack. He would simply overwhelm them through the use of blunt force.

Just like in old times and it had worked well than.

Only this time, they would have more experience and knew how to handle things better.

Once he heard what the members of the Wizengamot described, the Dark Lord was completely convinced that this was what they had to do.

Some of his Death Eaters, however, dared to disagree.

Crabbe Senior took a tentative step forward. A few other, more loyal, Death Eaters tried to hold him back, but the fool still protested. "With all due respect milord, most of us have actual jobs and lives now. We can't just attack out in the open! There's no way we can get away with the Imperius excuse a second time."

Lord Voldemort slowly raised his wand, pointed it at Crabbe who had realized his mistake (thus he was paler than usual) and clearly pronounced one word in an emotionless tone. " _Crucio_!"

Crabbe quickly collapsed to the ground, yelling in pain.

"Are you a foolish Gryffindor, Crabbe? I am not at all pleased with you. As your Lord, _I_ should be your highest priority. Not your work, not your family, but me and our noble cause. You should be prepared to sacrifice _everything_ without a second thought, not deny to have followed me. You should proudly proclaim it for the whole world to hear! Do you understand?" The Dark Lord directed the last part to all of his followers, not just Crabbe.

"Yes, my…. Lord. I'm... sorry, my…. Lord," Crabbe groaned while the others nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think! If you are waiting for an update, check out the link on my profile for my progress.


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